Jropieal Jours 



TO 



Soltee Sou/ps 



in 



MEXICO * 



<0 



PRESENTED WITH COMPLIMENTS OF THE 

Mexican National R. R 

The Shortest, Quickest and 

Jy • " ^ 

^ Host Picturesque Route ^ 



BETWEEN 



MEXICO and the UNITED STATES 



PUBLISHED BY THE MEXICAN NATIONAL RATLROAD. 
I8 93 . 



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49 it 61 PARK PL- 



pro(i) tl?e Border to tl?e Qapital 



A PROMINENT guide-book writer says, "The shape of Mexico is that of 
a cornucopia turned the wrong way " — the cornucopia is there, but it is 
by no means turned the wrong way : the big end is toward the United 
States, and there is naught for us to do but to pour out its treasures of climate, 
scenic beauty, antiquity, legends and commercial wealth for our delectation 
and to the prosperity of its people and ours. 

It is a favorite " ism" to compare rather odiously the mountains, rivers and 
lakes of this continent with those of Europe ; and applying the names of those 
on the other side to those on this side of the ocean is where the comparison 
becomes odious, as we have an American Rhine, a Switzerland and an Italy 
of America, down to Mexico, where an Egyptian title obtains which might be 
more complimentary to its age if it went the other way and Egypt was called 
the Mexico of the Old World. Even the title of " Old " is now disputed with 
the lands across the seas, as the history of Egypt's civilization is new, while 
Mexico's graven pillars, crumbling teocallis and ruined temples tell of a civil- 
ization whose generations run back through unremembered centuries and 
whose history must forever go unwritten. 

The discovery of Mexico by Francisco Hernandez de Cordova was made 
on the 4th of March, 15 17, at a point on the coast of Yucatan, and a year 
later was followed by Juan de Grijalva, who landed on the Island of San Juan 
de Ullua in the harbor of the existing city of Vera Cruz, from which port two 
years later Cortez commenced the march of the conquest, whose history is one 
of fascinating romance and adventure. The story of his battles, victories and 
defeats, the pomp and pageantry of Montezuma's court, to the fearful scenes 
of the noche triste, is familiar to every school boy, and the remembrance of it a 
lingering desire to see a country it was worth so many lives to obtain possession 
of — hence dates and statistical figures are unnecessary here. The all-impor- 
tant question of the traveler of to-day may be written in seven words : Which 
is the shortest and the quickest ? Being answered satisfactorily, he proceeds 
at once, taking up his historical data en route. 

Cortez could not have been impressed with the country from a first view, 
any more than the modern traveler is when he comes to the border at Laredo 



TOURISTS' GUIDE 



^Sa 



and looks across the murky waters of the Rio Grande to the plains on the 
other side, and, beyond them, to the barren, treeless, verdureless hills that 
would seem to shut out anything but the charmingly delightful country that 
opens up from their southern slopes, and, but for the tale of wealth, of salubri- 
ous clime, of people queer and 
quaint, of obelisks and temple 
ruins, of mysterious idol gods 
and pyramids, of cities falling 
on their own crumbling walls, 
not only Cortez, but every 
modern traveler would turn 
back discouraged on the first 
impression at the boundary 
hills. But the story of a coun- 
try so unique in varied attrac- 
tions is to be relied upon and 
the journey continued. 

To go from one place to 
another in one's own country 
is to see another town or city 
with similar streets and houses 
and a people of similar habits 
and customs ; to go from New 
York to San Francisco is hard- 
ly a change of scene — the street 
scenes are the same, the inte- 
rior views are alike, and the 
dress of the San Franciscan, 
his manners and customs differ 
Herein then, lies the charm of foreign travel. 




FROM A BACK COUNTY 



not from the New Yorker. 
And it is surprising how great the difference, just here and across the 
border — a narrow, muddy river like the Rio Grande is the dividing line be- 
tween the Nineteenth and the Sixteenth centuries, and perhaps the Tenth or 
Twelfth, or a bygone age that is dateless. It is true there is a mingling of 
the modern with the ancient in Mexico, but there is enough of the ancient to 
make one journey, or two, or a dozen, intensely interesting and fascinatingly 
charming. 



TOURISTS' GUIDE 



As I say, the charm begins when the river is crossed, but the transition of 
a night from the border city of Laredo is the stepping back some hundred 
years as one contemplates it in the shadow of the ruins of the Bishop's Palace 
on the hill that overlooks the valley and city of Monterey, and if it were not 
for the steel shining rails of the Mexican National Railway, and the smelters' 
smoking chimneys that have modernized and Americanized the view, the spell 
of the other century might not be broken of the legend and history of this 
Bishop's Palace ; and of the battle wherein it was a citadel any native will 
discourse to you, or you may read it in the guide book, which, as says Shakes- 
peare, "ne'er did lie, though folks at home condemn em." There are hun- 
dreds of quaint old ruins — aye, thousands — in Mexico that no book or paper 

ever tells of, and 
the interested tra- 
veler finds how 
little of the story 
has been told him. 
Of the people, 
what shall I say 
of them? I don't 
mean those who 
wear the Parisian 
bonnet instead of 
the lace mantilla, 
or the silken tile 
instead of the sil- 

THE BISHOP'S PALACE, MONTEREY. yered sombrero> 

but the oldest inhabitants — those of the ancient Spanish dress, and of the 
humbler sort who might trace their lineage to the great Aztecs and Toltec 
times ; but the country is modernizing, and he who would see the primitive- 
ness of it should go to-day nor wait hasta vianana, as the natives say, for 
to-morrow the other century may be blotted by the nineteenth. 

One is more interested in character sketches than landscapes, because one 
cannot always locate the landscape except by the title, and a picture of a 
pyramid of Egypt might have a title locating it in Mexico and even the man 
who has been there and knows it all can't identify it ; fact is, a picture of 
Jerusalem has been printed along with that of a Mexican city without placing 
any titles, and the reader asked to guess " which is which," and nine times 




TO TO L TEC TOWNS. 



out of ten Jerusalem's portrait was assigned 
to Mexico. A landscape along the line of 
the Mexican National Rail- 
road might be credited to a 
railroad across the Alps but 
for the title under the picture ; 
but the -natives of Mexico 
can be assigned to no other 
country on earth. It is not 
necessary to walk out into 
the country or take a horse 
or a buggy and ride to find 
the native — he is to be found 
under the car window at 
every station ; he may come 
to sell an opal to the unsus- 
pecting gringo from the 
United States, or tempt him 
to a glass of pulque; the 
purchase of either may or 
may not be regretted, as the 
gringo is or is not liberally 
constituted. The native may 
play a fiddle (for he is never 
a violinist) or ask alms minus 
the music, or may trudge 
along, carry (instead of saw) 
wood and say nothing, or he 
may bathe in the sluiceway 
from some hot spring or an 
irrigation ditch, "with no 
other protection," as a promi- 
nent writer has said, "than 
the blue sky and the Republic of Mexico." 

Not a country on earth, perhaps, presented 
greater difficulties of travel and transportation 
before the advent of railroads than Mexico — the 




TOURISTS' GUIDE 



high hills seemed insurmountable barriers, and the deep valleys unapproach- 
able from the precipitous heights. But the hills were climbed and the valleys 
invaded, till the narrow paths were hard beaten for centuries before the sur- 
veyors ran their chains along them and located the road-bed of the iron 
horse, where only the sure-footed, patient burro had been diiven by a not 
less sure-footed and patient peon driver. 

I wondered much when I read my early geography lesson, and saw the 
picture of an inverted mule in a wild tumble down a mountain side, with only 
his pack-saddle as a possible soft thing to light on, and then only in case he 
should strike on his back ; but when I came to take a burro ride from the 
station on the Mexican National Railroad to the great mining town of 
Catorce, or across the Sierra Madrcs from Toluca to the city of Mexico, I 
ceased to wonder at the tumble taken by the burro as remembered from the 
geography, yet wondered more how a railroad could be built where a burro 
couldn't walk with comfort, much less safety to himself. 

But it has been done, and the traveler rolls in luxurious ease in the Pull- 
man palace with as much safety as on the plains of Texas, and looks down 
into the awful gorges where many a burro has turned up his to — hoofs and 
turned down his load of silver ore as he rolled oer and o'er to a rushing tor- 
rent of a mountain stream a thousand feet below. All these are forgotten in 
the magnificence of the view down the canons and across them. At least 
they would be forgotten if the burros were not still there— as they really are, 
and forming a serious competition with the railways, as may be seen in the 
droves along the great, broad highway that runs along the Mexican National 
Railroad across the plain of Toluca, up and over the rugged sides of the 
Sierras, carrying the produce from the haciendas of the Toluca Valley to the 
markets of the capital. 

So serious a competition were these burro trains in the early days of rail- 
roading, and before the natives had ceased to regard a car as a thing to be 
looked at but not touched, that the National made a cheap rate from Toluca 
to the city of Mexico for the native huckster and his stock of vegetables, 
poultry, wood or charcoal, in the hope to carry the business and do away 
with a troublesome competition. 

The cheap rate was all well enough, but what was to become of the 
burro if left in Toluca, and how was the man to get his truck to market 
after arrival in the city ? This was a problem that could have but one solv- 
ing—the burro must go along, and he did. The rate was made to include 



TO TO L TEC TOWNS. 



the burro, and he was put into a car along with his master, and they all went 
to town and back for one fare. 

This was not the only competition. The driver carried as big a load as the 




BUSINESS HEAVY. 



driven, and the droves of human carriers seen along the roadside here form a 
distinctive feature in one of the most interesting scenes of the world, where it 
is but the twinkling of an eye to change from the towering grandeur of a 
lofty snow-capped peak down to the spreading plain, and to the old, once 
paved highway, just outside the car window there, with its men and animals 
carrying the commerce cf a country that has wealth enough in her hills to 
buy the world. 



TOURISTS' GUIDE 



This competition disappeared more quickly as to travel. Your Mexican 
has an eye for luxury, he knows a luxurious thing when he perceives it, and 
the Pullman car caught on, so to speak ; it was an instantaneous success. The 
two-wheel ox-cart, with its coop-like body, and the diligencia are relegated to 
the off-the-railroad towns, and if you see a Mexican carrying his own blankets 
and bedding, you may be sure he is from a back county and this is his first 
trip. But to return to the story of the road. 

A journey whose scenic effect does not rapidly improve can have but one 
redeeming feature — that of quick transit — in which the rapid revolutions of 
the wheels apologize for the featureless characteristics of the country, and do 
much to promote the placidity of a tourist on an otherwise tedious journey. 
When to this is added the knowledge that the desolate, cactus-covered plain 
ends at the foot of these blue hills that encircle it, and there are only a few hours 
of this, then every mile is full of interest. Crossing the Rio Salado and coming 
to the little town of Lampazos, the object of the journey for pleasure begins 
to be realized. South of the town on the right of the track is a mountain high 
and so level of crest that it is called La Mesa, the table. Its summit is nearly 
2,ooo feet above the plain, and along the rugged side of the cliff is a narrow 
path scarcely wider than is necessary for man and horse, or Indian and burro, 
to pass from the plain four miles to the summit. On the tip top of La Mesa 
is a level plain of nearly a hundred thousand acres of woodland and grass, well 
watered, where once was the home of a band of Cartujanos, an Indian tribe 
obtaining their name from an ancient Benedictine mission established there 
some hundreds of years ago ; but the more prosaic history is told in the owner- 
ship of La Mesa by an Irish-Mexican, a landlord with the wit of his native 
and the courtesy of his adopted country. 

Proceeding southwesterly, the Mexican National Railroad follows the old 
highway, that was first an Indian trail, then the highway of the Spanish king, 
and, later, the line of march of the American armies as they proceeded to the 
fields of what their greatest general has pronounced the most unholy and 
unjust war that was ever waged by a stronger against a weaker nation. This 
is an up-grade pull to higher altitudes, passing the minor stations of Busta- 
mente, Villaldama, Palo Blanco and Salinas in tortuous windings through the 
hills that seem to crowd around and shut off further progress at every turn ; 
and thus on to the first of those delightful surprises so plentiful in Mexico — a 
beautiful valley, a level plain of fertile fields and green trees with circling hills, 
bluer as they are nearer and in the distance fading to a lighter azure, so faint 



TO TO L TEC TOWNS. 



the line that it scarce can be discerned where the mountain ends and sky- 
begins. 

In such a plain and valley is the beautiful city of Monterey, with its 
flowering gardens and running springs and streams of limpid water, its 
quaintly arched bridges in the narrow streets, its plazas and parks, its massive 
houses and cathedral towers. The plain spreads out to the foot-hills of the 
Sierra Madres and to the peak called La Silla, where 'tis no strain on the 
imagination to define the saddle-shaped top that gives its name, or of that 
other Cerro de las Mitras where the bishop's mitre hangs high in the heavens 
as if in benediction over a peaceful people. South of the city a smaller hill 
has an odd-looking structure, that was once the residence of the bishop, and 
later was a fortress in defense of the city, the capture of which made the 
entry of the city an easy matter or the alternative of a destructive bombard- 
ment. Another point of interest and fine view is the Caido Hill, south of the 
city, reached by carriage road to within a hundred yards of the summit. 

On the border of the plain to the north and west are the famous Hot 
Springs of Topo Chico, famous long years ago, while of those of Arkansas 
(that are not superior to these) remained undiscovered, and for centuries 
under the patronage of the elite of Mexico, even to the august personage of 
Montezuma's daughter, who, fatigued in the giddy whirl of court life, came to 
Topo Chico for rest and recreation, returning to the capital as good as new, 
and was ever afterward. Topo Chico is three miles distant from Monterey, 
reached by horse-cars from the plaza, the track running through the green 
fields that lie between the city and the Springs. There are superb baths and 
a good hotel, all under American management. The waters of the Topo 
Chico are to become famous in this generation as in so many of the past, and 
now in these days of fast travel, many will journey thither as soon as 'tis 
known of the location on a main thoroughfare within six hours of the border, 
where the climate in December is as it is in June — an advantage not even 
claimed by any rival. Monterey and Topo Chico must become a summer 
resort for the people of the great State of Texas, and a winter resort for all the 
other States. From the Mexican National Railroad station horse-cars lead to 
the hotels, which are especially good, to all parts of the city and to Topo 
Chico. This system is under a careful and competent management that is 
watchful for their comfort and pleasure, as also for the traveler's patronage. 
Special cars may be hired and run "special," at the pleasure of the party. 
This is the best way to see the sights of Monterey, as the tracks reach all 



1 4 TOURISTS' GUIDE 



points of interest. At Monterey connection is made with the Monterey and 
Mexican Gulf Railway for Tampico. (See list of side trips under " Other 
Towns and Tours.") 

Southward from Monterey the scenery begins in earnest, following in the 
narrow valley of the San Juan, a great deep cut as if hewn from the towering 
rocks by the hand of Nature for a Titan roadway, now reduced to the uses 
of the modern railway, whose pigmy trains are little to insignificance as com- 
pared with the gigantic surrounding rocks, and the cut seems a misfit for even 
the ponderous locomotives that awaken the echoes as they, toiling, climb 
the resisting grades. The noisy little Rio San Juan foams and frets, 
first on this side, then on the other, as the track crosses from one side 
of the canon to the other to find easier ways to get over the hills. The 
little hamlet of Garcia, sometimes called Pesqueria, is just below Santa 
Catarina, both places being objects of excursions by rail and carriage from 
Monterey. There are two caves at Garcia, and from the left windows of 
the cars a careful look will find a curious hole through the crest of the moun- 
tain, as if made by a monster cannon shot. From now on, it is hard to say 
which side of the car to select. To see it all an observation point on the 
rear platform is best, or make a round trip and sit on one side one way, and 
on the other going back ; perhaps this is better, then you can sit still and 
take it easy. The wildness of scenery grows as the train rolls on through 
the ever-narrowing canon, and each turn brings some new picture grander 
and more beautiful than that other just back around the curve, and so it is on 
the up grade all the time till the train rolls onto the elevated plateau and 
through the gardens and orchards to the station at Saltillo, the capital of 
the State of Coahuila, a city celebrated for its good wine and the many and 
brightly colored zerapes, the pride of the Mexican's wardrobe, prized more 
highly than the overcoat of the American or the top-coat of the Englishman- 
To own a zerape of Saltillo is to possess the best and most artistically woven 
in intricate colors that can be produced with all the factories of Mexico striv- 
ing to imitate those hand-woven in Saltillo. The climate of Saltillo is fine, 
but is at its best in summer, and has claims as a resort at all seasons. 

There is an especially fine plaza and a cathedral ; these and the long stone 
aqueduct which brings the city's water supply from the mountains, the old 
French fort, the gardens and the orchard, are objects of interest to the tourist. 
The Mexican National has a good restaurant and hotel at the station, and 
there are other good hotels in the city, 



,6 TOURISTS' GUIDE 



A few miles south of Saltillois the battlefield of Buena Vista, pointed out 
from the windows on the left-hand side. Still on the up grade and still 
winding through the mountains, the train reaches the summit at Carncros, 
where the company has a coaling station. After Carneros the descent to the 
plain commences, and after reaching it, the track for a hundred and fifty 
miles is almost without a curve — a splendid track, where the distance might 
be made in three hours as far as danger of derailment is concerned, for miles 
and miles it is as straight as an arrow. Just before leaving the hills the 
village of Gomez Farias is pointed out on the right — once the home cf a noted 
brigand, and now inhabited by his better-behaved descendants. 

There is a fine grazing country on the plains, notably near La Ventura and 
El Salado, where may be seen herds of cattle, droves of horses and burros, 
taking life easy, living only to eat. 

Vanegas is the next station of importance : a railroad is now in operation 
toward Cedral and Matehuala. At Cedral, thirteen miles distant, are located 
extensive silver reduction works. Matehuala, fifteen miles beyond, is situated 
in a productive agricultural country, and is an extremely attractive place. 
There is a smelter here where is extracted the silver from me ores brought 
from the La Paz mines, which have produced great quantities of valuable 
mineral during the last decade. From Vanegas south we skirt the foot-hills 
of the mountain range, leaving it on the left, and come to the important 
station of Catorce. The importance does not seem to cluster about the 
station and force itself on one's observation, and at first glance there is an 
idea of inquiry as to the use of the elegant stone station at Catorce — a sedi - 
tious talker about Mexico said he had discovered that when he asked about 
some of the charming points in Mexico the answer was to the effect that 
they were somewhere else. While this is not true, one is apt to wonder why 
Catorce and other places of that ilk are set down as important. See the bur- 
ros browsing or lazily lying on the shady side of the station or the jacals — 
their empty pack-saddles were just now under a burden of silver. Look 
across the plain ; on the east side at the foot of the hills is a little patch of green 
where there is a village, the resting place of the pack trains of burros, the 
only means of transportation up the narrow path — that long brown line is the 
path that leads over hills where no wheels have ever rolled, to a city that has 
never heard their rumble, to the great mining city o'f Catorce, situated in the 
range eight miles from the station of the same name, merits more than a 
passing notice. Silver was discovered here about 1780, and the district at 



l8 TOURISTS' GUIDE 

once took rank among the most important in Mexico. Ore of fabulous rich- 
ness was found, and the records show that for more than thirty years, com- 
mencing with 1 790, the value of the output amounted to over three million 
dollars annually. Here are hundreds of mines and miles of shafting and 
tunneling. The drainage tunnel of one mile alone, the San Augustin, 
extends into the mountain for more than a mile and a half, and was excavated 
at a cost of a million and a half of dollars. For its entire length a tramway 
has been constructed which is operated by mule power. Catorce should be 
one of the very interesting places in. Mexico to the tourist. Here are found 
the customs of Mexico in their purity, unaffected by the influence of the 
stranger. Difficult of access, the town can be only reached by horseback or 
on foot. Catorce has seldom been visited by any except those making busi- 
ness trips. The ride up the mountains into the town is something, once 
accomplished, always to be remembered, partly from its element of personal 
peril, but more because of the beauty of the landscape encountered at every 
turn. Glancing down as you near your journey's end, you catch the gleam of 
the white walls of the town of Los Catorce outlined against the green of the 
mountain side. Thousands of feet below shimmer the waters of a mountain 
stream. The shifting coloring of the mountains, as light and shade chase 
each other over their ragged expanse, the browns and greens of the valley far 
below, and the hills in the hazy distance, are " beautiful exceedingly." The 
Real de Catorce is built on the side of a ravine near the top of the range, 
and has a varying population of from 8,000 to 20,000, as the mines are paying 
poorly or well. Here are found all varieties of silver ore, from carbonate to 
refractory ore, assaying $15,000 to the ton. Catorce has a fine cathedral, 
richly decorated, and a pretty plaza, the only level spot in the place. To use 
a railroad phrase, it is a combination of a cut and a fill, so that to tumble 
into it on one side or out on the other would be extremely disastrous. The 
streets are neatly paved, and run up and down hill, many of them at an 
angle of forty-five degrees. 

The story of the wheels, or rather, the no- wheels, is a true one, literally, 
with the single exception in the (was about to say) " carting," but conveying 
is better, a carriage on burros to the city by a rich mine owner, but was 
abandoned ; the wheels would roll one w r ay easily enough, but it was difficult 
to get back to the starting point — and the innovation of wheels at Catorce 
was not accomplished. The word catorce in Spanish means fourteen. The 
mines were discovered by a bandit band of fourteen members. 



TO TOLTEC TOWNS. 



19 



Catorce is the last stop in the Temperate Zone. Before the train reaches 
the next station, La Maroma, it crosses the Tropic of Cancer and enters 
the Torrid Zone ; but it is not to be inferred that the weather is to be warmer 
now, either in summer or winter. The memories of early geography lessons 
teach of latitude only, not even referring to the altitude of the section. 
Although within the tropics, it possesses a more delightful climate than any- 
where in the United States. A pyramid erected by the Mexican National 
Railroad Company marks the spot where the track crosses the tropical line. 

It may be seen from the windows on 
the west side of the train. This is an 
interesting feature in the geography 
of the line, and is brought more for- 




cibly to the mind of the traveler in that it marks 
the exact line between two zones that he has 
been taught differ so radically in climate. 

Leaving the Tropic of Cancer, the route is still 
across the plain as the arrow flies, passing Los 
Charcos, the station for another mining town, 
that of Charcos, where there are some valuable properties, then Venado, where 
half the journey is accomplished, and Moctezuma, which is quite a village. 

The town or village of Mexico that has not its legend is unworthy of its 
name. Wherever the train stops, and during the little minutes it stays at the 
station, a bit of history or legend is hurriedly told, and if the starting bell 
interrupts the story, the conductor or the train- man will tell the rest. The 
legends are of history, sacred and profane, not confined to earth, reaching the 
heavens above and waters beneath it, and from the vast deep the spirits have 
been called. If you doubt it, evidences a-re shown in the bridge at Monterey, 
where the Virgin stood and held at bay the invading Americans in '47, or the 



20 



TOURISTS' GUIDE 



stone sails at Guadalupe that encase the sails and foremast that the sailors 
carried from Vera Cruz, and erected in front of the Virgin's holiest shrine, as 
they had vowed to do if she would save them from shipwreck ; the rocks are 
shown from whence Juan Medina leaped, and the Mexican National cars run 
over the spot where he fell ; and the famous Titian at Tzintzuntzan, near 







To 3 I n A 





PYRAMID AT THE TROPIC OF CANCER. 



Patzcuaro, has its legend as well as authenticated history ; and thus at this 
station or that, all along the line, some new and unheard-of story is told. 

Bocas, a little village just north of San Luis Potosi, is one of the prettiest 
in all Mexico, being the first really typical town of beauty reached on the 
southward trip. The train has been crossing an unbroken plain for a 
hundred and fifty miles without a curve, and the coming to the green trees 
of Bocas is in the nature of a first impression, that is reputed as the most 
lasting. 



TO TO L TEC TOWNS. 



21 



As the train is nearing Bocas, be ready for a look from the windows on 
the east side of the cars, and very near the track see a most magnificent 
hacienda, the first really fine and typical hacienda, with its castle-like residence, 
towered church and group of bells, arched bridge of stone, walled gardens 
with growing fruits and flowers, and court-yards with frowning parapets built 
in the old bandit days for protection to the peons and the herds at night. On 
the other side, in a grove of green trees, is a place 'tis said once belonged to 
Emperor Maximilian, while another legend says a rich landowner com- 
menced to build, but ere the house was completed he died and it was turned 
into a chapel ; it is 
the white tower of 
the chapel that is seen 
above the trees. Be- 
tween the stream and 
the track is a mescal 
distillery, a native rum 
made from a species of 
the maguey — a novel 
feature of which is the 
primitive water wheel 
worked by the more 
primitive and patient 
ass. At Bocas, no mat- 
ter which way you are 
going, lay in your supply of fruits (and mescal if you like it) ; they are good 
(the fruits are) and fresh from the trees. 

Now the plains are left behind and the climbing of the hills at the southern 
boundary commenced. There are many twists and turns before the table land 
is reached where the city is, which, outside of the capital, is second to none 
in the Republic — the city of San Luis Potosi, almost the only one where 
the railway station is near the city's centre, as it is here, on one of the main 
plazas, and within easy walk of the business portion from one of the finest 
railway stations in this or any other country. On all schedules there is 
time for a look around; but San Luis is one of the places to stop, as 
there are good hotels and much to see. The city is laid out at right 
angles, the streets are marvelously clean, and the houses, required by law to 
be kept newly painted, are examples of cleanliness that might be emulated 




TABLET OF THE PYRAMID OF THE TROPIC OF CANCER. 



22 



TOURISTS' GUIDE 



by nations said to have a better reputation than has been unjustly given to 
Mexico. 

The markets are especially interesting, and the fountains with their pic- 
turesque crowds of water-carriers and their quaint, primitive wheelbarrows 



^%- 




\ 



8: 



OLD CHURCH AT BOCAS. 



carrying from one to three earthen jugs that are strapped on these San Luis 
velocipedes which work with a shove motion in a manner more picturesque 
than easy. In the plaza is a fine statue of Hidalgo, placed in position on 
Independence day of '89. An interesting drive is through Paseo del San- 
tuario de Guadalupe to the church of that name, the one with the two tall 
towers seen from the cars in approaching the city from the south. The 
cathedral has a fine clock which sounds the hours, and was the gift of a King 
of Spain in return for the largest single piece of silver ore ever taken from a 
mine — the mines of San Pedro, near San Luis. The people are a hospitable, 



TO TO L TEC TOWNS. 



23 



pleasure-loving set, and very kind and courteous to strangers within their 
gates. 

There are several fine public buildings, notably the Governor's Palace, 
Palace of Justice, the Cathedral, the churches of Carmen, San Augustin and 
Merced. The streets are narrow, and, as usual, picturesque ; the plaza is a 
revelation ; the hotels are much superior to those of most Mexican cities, and 




THE WATER WORKS OF SAN LUIS POTOSI. 



altogether San Luis Potosi is worthy of its enviable reputation. Its business 
men arc active and progressive. Mining interests have added very materi- 
ally to its wealth, and, now that it is on direct line of rail communication with 



24 TOURISTS' GUIDE 

the outside world, it will, without doubt, attain increased prominence. The 
railway station is located on the west side of the alameda, or park, so that, 
contrary to usual custom in this country, the traveler is enabled to take the 
train almost in the heart of the city. At San Luis Potosi is the crossing of 
the Mexican Central's Tampico line, reaching to Tampico on the east and 
Aguas Calientes on the west. 

After leaving the table land we again enter the hills and valleys and 
canons, where the scenery is wildly picturesque, and as valley after valley is 
passed, it is apparent that the soil is here extremely productive. The popu- 
lation becomes more dense and the vegetation increases in luxuriance. Villa 
Reyes is passed, with the immense hacienda of Jaral, which, during the revo- 
lution of 1810 furnished a full regiment of cavalry to assist the royalists 
against the armies of the patriots. This hacienda once controlled 20,000 
peons. Before arriving at San Felipe we cross a deep barranca spanned by 
a viaduct noticeable for its height and the engineering skill displayed in its 
construction. San Felipe is a town of some 6,000 inhabitants, and is situated 
in the centre of a rich farming country. 

Dolores Hidalgo was given its name in honor of the patriot Hidalgo, the 
Washington of Mexico, who sounded the watchword of liberty which fired the 
Mexican heart and aroused the whole country to arms to resist the power of 
Spain. This is a quaint old town of several thousand inhabitants. It has a 
fine plaza and interesting churches, and the traveler is shown many relics of 
the Cura Hidalgo, which are here preserved in the old house which he 
occupied. 

Turning more to the westward, skirting some high mountains, the road 
comes to the city of San Miguel de Allende, named for and the birth- 
place of the patriot Allende. The city is on the east side, about a mile and a 
half from the station, spread out on the sloping sides of a great hill — one of 
the most picturesque towns in all Mexico, famous for its baths, where the 
water gushes from the rocks on the hillside, is conveyed fresh to the baths at 
a most comfortable temperature ; these ever-running springs, furnishing an 
abundance of water, run down in sparkling streams and miniature cascades 
through the most beautiful gardens of fruits and flowers. The plaza is a 
beautiful one, densely shaded by luxuriant trees, under which the natives 
in brightly colored costumes, group themselves on market days, when the 
band plays in the evenings, making pretty pictures fit for a canvas. The 
hotels face the plaza, and they are good ones, the windows overlooking the 



TO TO L TEC TOWNS. 



25 



novel scene. On one side is the Casa de Loreto ; the modern spires of the 
chapel being designed by an untutored native, contrast strangely with the 



square and Moorish style of the older 
After leaving San Miguel the road 
canon of the Laja. A seat on the right 
can see the little river far down the 
other side the high hills, and just at a 
a jutting point of the mountain across 
that would seem to be painted on 




buildings beside it. 
enters the valley and 
is the best, where you 
valley and on the 
turn of the canon, on 
the valley, is a cross 
the sky. All along 
through the valley are 
little farms with clus- 
ters of adobe houses ; 
every hamlet has its 
quaint little church, 
tower, bell and all. 
These are on the 



PARISH CHURCH AT SAN MIGUEL DE ALLENDE — MEXICAN NATIONAL RAILROAD. 



26 



TOURISTS' GUIDE 



slope below the track, affording glimpses of Mexican farm-yard life. The 
houses are almost hidden by trees and vines, among which are many 
oranges, lemons and bananas, bright green spots in little fields laid out in 
squares hedged with what we call the century plant, the maguey, from 
whence the Mexican gets his pulque. 

Leaving the canon, the country assumes a more tropical aspect, more of 
what the tourist expects to see — and if there were time and a hotel at the 
place, would say to stop off at San Juan de las Vegas, a typical Mexican 
town, primitive in style, where no foreigner has his home, where there are 
groves of oranges and lemons and bananas, where 
fruit may be had for the picking, and where the 
native " lazies " the time away in indolent do-noth- 
ingness behind the rows of cactus that hedge the 
streets. This interesting place and the woolen 
mills of Soria passed, the route is through a fine 
agricultural country, to Celaya, a city of great 
beauty in the midst of a fertile country. Here the 
tourist meets the vender of opals, strawberries (at 
all seasons) and dulces, a native confection, or 
rather the vender meets the traveler on all trains, 
night or day. A word of advice — select your opal, 
box of strawberries or dulces, but conclude no bar- 
gains till the engine bell rings and the conductor 
cries " Vamanos!" Then — have the exact change 
ready, and probably you will come out all right. 
At Celaya are many fine old churches, especially Our Lady of Carmen, which 
contains some frescoes of note and several paintings well worth seeing. 
Celaya is built on a level plain in the valley of the Laja. It is celebrated for 
its dulces (sweetmeats), and there are several manufacturers of woolen and 
cotton fabrics. The baths of Celaya are among its attractions. A tramway 
extends from the railroad to the plaza in the centre of the town. Here the 
Mexican National is crossed by the line of the Mexican Central. The prin- 
cipal hotel is the Golis. Continuing down the valley of the Laja we arrive 
at Salvatierra, noticeable in the distance from the glittering of its many 
church domes, which, being covered by a glazed tiling, present a pleasing 
contrast to the dark green of the many shade trees with which the streets 
are lined. Salvatierra has a population of 10,000, and is something of a trad- 




TO TO L TEC TOWNS. 



27 



ing centre. There is a large woolen mill which gives it some manufacturing 
importance. There are several small hotels, the best of which is the Diligen- 
cias. The line continues from here south through an interesting and very- 
fertile country, abounding in corn and sugar cane, passing many peculiar- 
looking Indian villages with their quaint peaked huts. 

From the valley, the "Valley of the Laja," it is a quick ride through a 
rich country to the valley of the Lerma. reached at Acambaro, and that long- 
est river in Mexico is crossed just before coming to the station. 

Acambaro is the most self-satisfying town in Mexico. It is delightfully 
primitive, and the fact that it is an important railway junction point has not 
lost to it any of its antique quaintness. The town lies off to the westward of 
the station, and although scarcely half a mile away, is so completely hidden 
by the trees that only the church towers can be seen peering above them, and 
showing the white outline against the blue background of the high hills be- 
yond the town. The lover of the quaint and antique will find much to charm 
in this old town, only its very quietness seems oppressive, and after a stop of 
a few hours the tourist is ready to join the entire population and go and see 
the train come in. Acambaro is the junction of the western division of the 
Mexican National Railroad, leading to Morelia and Patzcuaro, and the beau- 
tiful lake region of Mexico, which is described in another part of this book. 

The main line of the National now takes a turn to the southeast, following 
the valley of the Lerma, sometimes running near its waters and then high 
above them on the high cliffs of a canon. The best view can be had from the 
windows on the east side, though in 
crossing the hills there are so many 
turns that the same views may be seen 
from either side — one in particular, a 
fertile valley far down the hillside with 
its green fields laid off in squares so 
regularly that it seems a huge checker- 
board. In the midst of it is a little vil- 
lage hidden by the trees, all but the very 
white tower of the church, which may 
be seen first from one side of the train and then from the other for more than 
an hour ; then passing into a great cation and through it on the right bank, in 
ten minutes comes to the very pretty town of Maravatio, with the usual 
complement of queer-looking old churches and attractive plazas. Its red-tiled 




28 



TOURISTS' GUIDE 



houses give it a picturesque appearance. From here on the country is 
fertile and remarkably attractive to the eye — the broad lying valleys covered 




with bright patches of bril- 
liantly colored flowers, and 
the graceful lines of the 
mountains, all are in marked 
contrast to the wild and 
rugged landscape of the 
north. At Maravatio con- 
nection is made with the Michoacan & Pacific Railroad under construction to 
the west coast of Mexico. Skirting the valley of Solis we pass into the moun- 
tains under a beetling cliff, called by the natives " El Salto de Juan Medina," 



WAITING FOR THE TRAIN. 



TO TO L TEC TOWNS. 



29 



the tradition being that a famous bandit, one Juan Medina, being hotly pursued 
by the authorities, leaped his horse from the precipice and was dashed in pieces 
on the rocks below. A steep grade is here surmounted, and the train enters 
Zopilote Canon, along the precipitous side of which a space just wide 
enough for the track has been blasted. Above hang great masses of 
granite, the mountain here rising sheer upward for hundreds of feet; 
below dashes a rushing stream, which just in advance foams and tumbles 
over the rocks, forming a waterfall of great beauty. Passing out of the 
canon we enter the fertile country once more, and reach one of the richest, 
agricultural regions in all Mexico. The great haciendas, that are almost 
towns in themselves, are seen on both sides, and in the fields whole regi- 
ments of peons are plowing ; the plows drawn by steers move more slowly, 
but with military precision 
as soldiers in skirmish line, 
as they are, too, on the 
skirmish for their daily 
bread. 

Now a look forward from 
either side of the cars will 
soon show the snow-capped 
crater of the volcano of To- 
luca, and after passing Flor 
de Maria and several other 
less important stations, 
comes the city of Toluca, 
on the west side of the track, 
a very beautiful city on the 
foot-hills of the volcano. 
Toluca is the capital of the 
State of Mexico ; it is one 

WHOA ! 

of the cleanest, most charm- 
ing and most hospitable cities in the world. Horse-cars run from the station 
to the plaza, passing the principal hotels, of which there are several excellent 
cnes in Toluca ; in fact, no tourist has ever left the city but in a happy mood, 
thanks to the good living, splendid rooms and refreshing baths. The clean, 
well-paved streets, the quaint portales, the really fine markets, the pretty 
plaza, and the splendid public buildings are all features of attraction that 




3° 



TOURISTS' GUIDE 




town and m 
After leaving 
almost due east, 
over there are to - ^ /', 
surmise, and when he V- 
how it was ever done. " x 
chosen, or on the rear \ 
way, a broad road that i 
track for some miles, 
cattle, hundreds of men 
of burros — the men, women 
the products of the country 
the markets of Toluca or even 
miles away. Just before reach 
Lerma is crossed near its 



fc 



A 



where once was the great city of 
gling village. A mile or two further on 
helper-engine is hooked on, two engines 
lightest train and three for the heavier 
to the right for the grandest piece of 
anywhere in Mexico. The little village \ 
whose streets are about on a level with the SB 
In a few moments after the train has 
closely bended horseshoe curve, it will be a thcu J' , - 
the village, and on a cliff so precipitous that we * . 
the roofs of thatches and tiles and the church \ 
towers that seem as toys from a child's play- ^ 
box. 

Not all the attraction is at the base of the 
hill — the grand view includes the whole plain of 
Toluca, the city with its red-tiled roofs and beyond 
it the volcano, a magnificent panorama without a 



leave the most pleasant memories. Toluca is 

a good place to buy souvenirs in linen-drawn 

work, pottery, straw sombreros, 

^^ palmetto baskets and scores of 

other mementos of this delightful 

country. 

the station at Toluca the track runs 

and how the high mountains just 

be surmounted no traveler can 

)j comes to them he still wonders 

A seat on the right is to be 

platform. The King's Iligh- 

once was paved, parallels the 

\, It is crowded with droves of 

II and women, and pack-trains 

if and burros all laden with 

going to or returning from 

the city of Mexico, forty 

ing the hills the river 

waters, and at a point 

Lerma, now only a strag- 

a stop is made and the 



< 



Y 

% 

head 




being required for the 
ones. Now all hands 
scenery on the road or 
near the road 
railsisOcoYOCAC. 
I crawled around a 
sand feet above 
may look down on 



\ 



k 






ABOVE OCOVOCAC. 



TO TOLTEC TOWNS. 31 

superior in its wonderful scope — not in Mexico, not on the continent, nor, I 
believe, in the world. 

The two locomotives toil along slowly, so there is time to enjoy the scene 
always to be remembered, and yet almost impossible to describe. On the 
first shelf of the Sierra Madres — the " Mother Mountains " of Mexico — after 
leaving Toluca valley are the mill and fields of Jajalpa ; then continuing the 
ascent, passing under the old and the new aqueducts of the mills, with here and 
there a parting glimpse of the valley again, the road comes to Salazar and 
then to La Cima, which is the summit and where the " helper " is unhooked, 
as 'tis easy going now. 

Here the altitude is more than ten thousand feet above the sea, though 
you may have discovered this if altitudes affect you, if not in measured feet, 
in the short measure of your breathing, and the cool crisp atmosphere. You 
noticed the mountain stream that flows down the west slope and past Jajalpa, 
the source of the Lerma, whose waters flow on to the Pacific Ocean — these at 
the track side now, rushing in a hundred cascades down the canon, go on 
forever to the valley of Mexico. 

As the seat on the right has been selected for the ascent, it is a good one 
to keep on the down grade, and there is something to see in every inch of 
the way, so the wink of darkness made by a short tunnel is begrudged. The 
towering mountains on one side, the yawning chasm on the other, look wicked 
enough and command attention near by. But look — look beyond that canon, 
and beyond the hills on the other side of it — there, still twenty miles away is a 
shining sheet of silvery waters, a broad spreading plain, hundreds of towers, 
and beyond them the everlasting hills, and beyond them lifting their hoary 
heads even to the clouds, and above them two peaks of snow, whiter 
than the snowiest clouds, and whiter still 'gainst the clear blue sky — is this 
picture or the other, grander? These are the lakes Texcoco and Xochi- 
milco, the plain and city of Mexico and the volcanoes of Popocatepetl and 
Ixtaccihuatl. 

Rolling the descent down, the train runs almost as slowly as it came up 
the other side— the two powerful brakes keeping it in perfect control. The 
village over on the hill was once a rendezvous of a bandit band, the church 
was of their building from the proceeds of their business. Rio Hondo is a 
wood and water station. Near it on the left of the track is a great meteoric 
stone as big as a car, called by the natives the " Moon stone," as they believe 
it fell from that planet. There are some strange hieroglyphics on the stone, 



32 



TOURISTS' GUIDE 



and it is believed to have a more ancient origin in its graving- than the famous 
Calendar stone. Next is Dos Rios, and then the factories of Naucalpan, 
and then rolling down to the level plain, past Tacuba and under the old 

aqueduct into the Colonia station, and the 
journey to the city of Mexico is ended. 

WESTERN DIVISION. 

Westward from Acambaro runs the 
division of the Mexican National Railroad 
which is to make it a Transcontinental 
line, and when completed will reach the 
Pacific Ocean at Manza- 
nillo. In the mean time 
that completed portion 
which extends from the 
main north and south line 
at Acambaro to Morelia 
and Patzcuaro affords a 
most charming ride 
through a rich country 
of the more primitive 
Mexico and through the 
beautiful lake region. 
The winding road pas- 
ses over the hills and val- 
leys and some stretches of 
agricultural lands with its fertile 
farms and great haciendas, and 
comes suddenly after a sharp 
curve to the shores of Lake Cuit- 
seo, and turning to the left skirts 
the southern shore of the lake, 
where in the marshes are some old salt works ; following along the western 
shore the train comes to the little station of Querendaro. The more ad- 
venturous tourist may leave the train here; not that there is any danger 
whatever, but there is no hotel, not even a fonda, and provender must be 
brought along or hunted and fished for. A canoe may be hired from the 




THE CATHEDRAL — CITY OF MORELIA. 



TO TO L TEC TOWNS. 



33 



Indians for a voyage across to the Island of the Burros, one of the many 
islands of the lake and the only one inhabited. 

The people are a hardy, sturdy race, the men are hunters and fishers, the 
women have nothing to do but to eat, sleep and grow fat, which they have made 
a complete success of ; there are some fine specimens of almost Amazonian 
proportions, the finest Indians in Mexico. The lake abounds in myriads of 
water-fowl of every description. The fish as taken by the Indians in large 
hoop nets attached to a long pole, are a small white fish like a minnow, no 
bigger than your finger. These when dried in the sun are ready for the table, 
I should say, if there was one on the island. Lake Cuitseo is about forty-five 
miles long by ten to twelve broad ; the shores on the north and east rise to 
high peaks, as do most of the islands ; the southern shore is low and marshy ; 
altogether a beautiful sheet of water. 

Near the landing place of Querendaro there are some hot springs, where 
the water is hot enough in the streams that flow from them to boil an egg. 
In scores of places columns of steam are rising from the fissures in the ground, 
and to walk over or near them is to feel the ground sink under you. 

In a thicket near the track is a most primitive bath. A pit dug in the 
ground near one of the spring streams is filled with water by damming the 
little brook, and when full is turned back to its own channel again. It must 
be a spring of wonderful curing waters. On the trees and bushes, in the 
ground, everywhere near, there are hundreds and hundreds of crosses, the 
thank-offerings of those who have bathed and been cured. 

Leaving the lake, the route is still to the westward, and abounding in 
those beauties of landscape that characterize the road throughout its length. 

The high double-peaked mountain to be seen ahead, first on one side and 
then the other, is the Cerro de Quinceo, just on the outskirts of Morelia. 
A look from the windows on the left shows the towers of the cathedral over 
the top of a barren hill ; on the other is the river, the train running close to 
its banks, where hundreds of natives are indulging in open-air laundering 
and bathing. 

Morelia is one of the prettiest cities in all Mexico, and its women enjoy 
the same flattering reputation. Horse-cars run from the station to the 
plaza and to the principal hotels, than which there are no better anywhere 
in the Republic, and they are entirely satisfactory as to rooms, baths and 
board. The beautiful plaza, the magnificent cathedral, the Paseo de San 
Pedro, the Causeway of Guadalupe, the Aqueduct, are objects of attraction ; 




34 



TO TOLTEC TOWNS. 



35 



but the hospitality of the people, the beauty of the women, the music and 
the flowers, all combine to lengthen the stay to the extreme limit of a stop- 
over ticket. 

If there was nothing else at the end of it, it is worth all the journey to 
Morelia to see the Cathedral and the great towers thereof, that may be seen 
from afar off, overtopping the high hills, giving the first glimpse of the city as 
the train comes up the valley from the east. There is not a finer edifice 




LA VIGA GATE. 



anywhere in Mexico, outside of the capital, than the Cathedral of the See of 
Michoacan, and the Cathedral of Mexico is not superior except in size. The 
towers, the great organ, the silver altar rails, vestments and vessels, images 
and candelabra of fine silver, have not an equal anywhere, though these are 
only a remnant of what used to be, nearly half a million dollars worth being 
confiscated by the Government some twenty years ago, though one can hardly 
miss what has been taken away, or tell where they put it when it was here. 
The silver font from which Iturbide and Morelos were baptized, is still 
in use. 

The Cathedral is beautifully situated, with the main front facing the Plaza 
de los Martires, with the eastern look over the Plaza de la Paz. 



36 TOURISTS' GUIDE 

In the Plaza de los M^rtires, which means the plaza of the martyrs, are 
the most beautiful trees and flowers, and in the midst of them a beautiful 
pavilion where the band plays in the evening, that famous, magnificent band 
that was at the New Orleans Exposition, the favorite band of Mexico. And 
to this plaza comes also the "400" of Morelia to rub elbows with the ragtag 
and bobtail, when the band begins to play. 

In the afternoons there is music in the beautiful Parque de San Pedro, and 
the walk thence, not a long one, is through the Calzado de Guadalupe, a 
paved way, shaded by immense elms, the walkway being in the centre and the 
drives on either side in front of the residences. The trip can be made on the 
horse-cars, but there is everything to recommend the most delightful walk, 
and nothing in favor of the cars. 

After leaving Morelia the road passes near the Cuincho Falls and hot 
springs on the south side of the track, and after a short run skirts a high bluff 
and comes to the highest navigable waters on the globe — comes to beautiful 
Lake Patzcuaro. Patzctjaro is well entitled to its name, which, being 
interpreted, means to Indian ears a " place of delights," and it means this to 
anybody who goes there. 

The station is on the lake shore ; a diligence runs to the town, two miles 
up the hill, and the drive is a most charming one, as the beautiful view grows 
wider and wider as the hill is ascended, and when at the top, the lake with 
its islands, the valley with its fields of green and its four dozen towns and 
villages are included in the scope of vision. The quaint plaza shaded by great 
trees, surrounded on four sides with heavy columned portales, the market 
place, the narrow, crooked streets with shrines and crosses in every nook and 
corner, and the grand view from Los Balcones, at the crest of the Cerro 
de Calvario, are all most prolific subjects for the tourist's note-book, and in 
every one will be written that Patzcuaro is indeed a "place of delights." 

There is a little steamer on the lake, the " Mariano Jiminez," which runs 
from the dock to the northern shores of the lake, making several landings at 
way-baek towns where there are no railways, and, perhaps, never will be. 
The object of the voyage on the lake, and in fact of the trip to Patzcuaro, is 
the famous painting in the old church at the village of Tzintzuntzan, on the 
east shore of the lake — The Entombment, by Titian, presented to the Bishop 
of Michoacan by Philip II. of Spain. Many noted writers and artists have 
made the pilgrimage and returned with the feeling that the trip was amply 
paid for in the seeing of so celebrated a picture, for which the natives have 



TO TO L TEC TOWNS. 



37 



been offered the most fabulous sums by different persons, but they have 
uniformly refused. Tzintzuntzan was once the capital of a powerful tribe of 




IN THE VALLEY OF LAJA — MEXICAN NATIONAL RAILROAD. 

Indians, but now only a little hamlet with a grand old church and a great 
picture. 



38 TOURISTS' GUIDE 



The steamer runs irregularly, but need not be depended upon for the trip 
to Tzintzuntzan. It may be made by canoe, the wide-bottom boats of the 
Tarascans, or on horseback or burros in three or four hours. 

Patzcuaro and the beautiful lake have all the attributes of a fine health 
and pleasure resort. In the very near future the American will begin to find 
out why the Indians call it a place of delights. 

It requires no special arrangements of schedule to take the ride over the 
western division. There is a fine station at Acambaro, with restaurant and 




THi£ TRANSFER AT LAREDO. 

rooms, which will be reserved for tourists on telegram to the agent of the 
Mexican National Railroad, of whom excursion tickets to Morelia and Patz- 
cuaro may be obtained. 

THE CITY OF MEXICO. 

The city of Mexico is not all of Mexico, neither is the all of Mexico com- 
pleted until the city has been seen ; and since Cortez came over the eastern 
hills that are beyond Texcoco's waters, every tourist or traveler on business 
bent makes a bee line for the city, nor stops until within its walls. All other 
places may be visited later, but the capital must have the first call. 

* The fame of this fair city, for it is a fair city, has gone abroad through all 
the world, and nearly half a thousand years ago the story of its splendor, the 
glory of its temples, the civilization of its people and their wealth, the pomp 
and circumstance of its rulers, the beauty of situation and salubrity of climate 
went across the seas and reached the royal ears of Europe's kings ; and since 
those old, old days, centuries agone, the famous story went out continually to 
bring hither in every passing decade, year, month, week and day, pilgrims 



TO TOLTEC TOWNS. 39 

from every land, for conquest, hope of gain or scientific research, down to 
these days of pleasure touring and business travel. 

Nor is the story scarcely less famous now. True, it is not expected that 
tawny princes bedecked with dazzling jewels, on palanquins borne, with 
attending hosts of vassals and plumed and feathered warriors, will meet the 
arriving guest in these modern days ; but the same grand old city's there, 
with its temples not less imposing, its people not less curious, its glorious 
climate of perpetual spring-time, just the same now as then, and beauty of 
spreading plain and lake, circled by high hills deeply, darkly blued by a 
wondrous atmosphere marvelously clear, high hills with camel backs out- 
lined against the sky, a silent, never-ending caravan led on by two hoary 
leaders with heads uplifted high above the others and whited by eternal snows. 
These are there forever, and withal, there, treasured in the city's halls, the 
evidences in hieroglyphics, graven image, altar and sacrificial stone and 
wrinkled parchment, faithfully tells of nations passed away and a history 
that must forever go unwritten. 

As this story brought Cortez across the seas, and other thousands since 
his time, so the telling of it, and the relics of it, are bringing armies of sight- 
seers, health and pleasure seekers to the same grand old city of to-day — and 
those who get there the quickest, with most comfort and scenic attraction, 
are the passengers of the Mexican National Railroad. (This paragraph is a 
sudden drop from the soaring flights of fancy, but the cold facts so assert 
themselves that the pencil takes the tangent businessward irresistibly.) 

Since, then, we are down to the present age, where practical information 
is the thing, let us have it. It has been told how this short line gets to the 
capital of the Mexican Republic ; the story has a fitting ending — at Colonia 
station, near the Paseo de la Reforma, in a most attractive portion of the 
city, where all trains arrive and depart — a convenient location with con- 
necting horse-car lines to all parts of the city, and paved streets leading to 
hotels and points of interest. 

The city of Mexico, with a geographical location within the tropics, and 
although on a level plain with outlying lakes, is by its altitude of over 7,000 
feet above the sea, possessed of a climate so delightfully salubrious, so even 
in temperature, that summer or winter a residence here is always pleasant, 
and visits to the city may be made at any time from January to January. 

If it is written that the climate is the chief attraction, when you have seen 
them, you may say that the beauties of the plain and the surrounding hills 



40 



TOURISTS' GUIDE 



and the volcanic views are a fair rival ; to this may be added the manners and 
customs of a courteous people, the parks and streets, the old churches and 
their decorations, pictures, bells and towers, which are more satisfactorily 

seen than described. 
They can only be enu- 
merated here as 'tis 
done on the other 
pages of this book. 

Historical. 

Cortez landed at 
Vera Cruz April 21, 
1 5 19; commenced his 
march toward the 
capital August 16, 




and entered Mexico No- 
vember 8, 1 519; was driven 
out July 1, 1520, La Noche 
Triste (Dismal Night). 

Cortez returned and laid 
siege to Mexico December 
31, 1520; captured and en- 
tered the city again August 
13, 1 521, and Mexico or the 
province of New Spain re- 
mained under Spanish rule 
three hundred years. Dur- 
ing this time there were 
viceroys. 



UP HILL AND DOWN IN THE MADRES. 

five governors, two audencias and sixty-two 



TO TOLTEC TOWNS. 41 

First insurrection against Spanish rule was started September 16, 18 10, by 
Hidalgo, who was defeated, captured and executed July 31, 181 1. 

After another period of disturbance, Iturbide entered the city of Mexico 
with his army, and the power of Spain was ended in Mexico September 27, 
1821. 

Iturbide elected emperor May 19, 1822; forced to resign March 4, 1823, 
and a decree of banishment was passed against him. After an absence of a 
year in Europe, he returned to Mexico July 14, 1824; was captured and 
executed July 19, 1824. 

From the time of banishment of Iturbide to the arrival of Maximilian 
Mexico had a republican form of government. 

The troops of Napoleon III. occupied the city of Mexico June 9, 1863; 
Maximilian arrived at city of Mexico June 12, 1864, and was executed June 
19, 1867. 

Benito Juarez returned to the city of Mexico July 15, 1867, and the 
republican form of government was again established. And under the lib- 
eral and progressive policy of President Diaz, Mexico is being rapidly devel- 
oped, and taking a front rank among the nations of the world. 

Excursion Tickets. 

The Mexican National Railroad, at their ticket and telegraph officer 
Coliseo street, under San Carlos Hotel, city of Mexico, will sell excursion 
tickets to holders of American tourist tickets at following rates of fare in 
Mexican silver : 

Toluca and return $3 00 

Morelia and return 12 00 

Patzcuaro and return 14 00 

San Miguel de Allende and return 1 2 00 

Tickets good for fifteen days. 

Stop-over checks for any of the above-named points issued by conductors. 

Passengers holding through tickets issued in the United States may stop 
off at Acambaro, where a good restaurant and accommodations may be 
found, and make the tour of the Western division running through the lake 
region of Mexico to two of the most interesting cities in the Republic — 
Morelia and Patzcuaro. Rooms will be reserved in the station hotel at 
Acambaro if advised of arrival. 



42 



TOURISTS' GUIDE 



Round-trip tickets from Acambaro to Morelia, $4.00; Patzcuaro, via 
Morelia, $5.00. 

NOTE. — Round-trip tourist tickets to Mexican points cannot be changed 
to other returning routes after arrival in Mexico ; routes must be decided 
when tickets are purchased at starting point. 

Altitudes of Mountain Peaks. 



Popocatepetl, 17,782 feet; Orizaba, 17,356 



feet ; Ixtaccihuatl, 16,060 
feet; Nevado de Toluca, 
1 5,000 feet. 

These are all extinct 
volcanoes with others of 
their kind throughout 
the country, not having 
been in action for cen- 
turies, though the sul- 
phur deposits give ample 
evidence of the hot times 
in the long ago, when 
their internal affairs must 
have interfered with the 
eternal snows on the 
external surfaces, also 
indicating a closer prox- 
imity to the infernal than 
was altogether pleasant. 

Other 
Towns and Tours. 

I believe it was left 
to the progressive Amer- 
ican to "do Rome in a day ; " but in this country of magnificent distances 
such celerity is not possible, nor can the number of days required to do the 
city of Mexico be quoted here ; but when this greatest of Mexican cities has 
been gone over, from Chapultepec to Guadalupe, and from Texcoco to Los 
Remedios, the sightseer tireth not, but looketh about for new fields and other 
sights to see. 




AQUEDUCT OF JAJALPA. 



TO TOLTEC TOWNS. 4 3 

The Day Excursions from the capital may be made by rail or horse- 
cars, and not one of these mentioned here but is sufficient in attraction to 
repay the trip. 

Tacubaya is the place of summer residence of many prominent people of 
the city, a lovely suburban village, with many beautiful gardens surrounding 
some of the finest residences in all Mexico. Tacubaya has been called the 
Mexican Monte Carlo, as in a small way it is. Horse-cars run from the Plaza 
Mayor in front of the cathedral, and there is a steam road starting from near 
the Paseo. 

Guadalupe is a famous name in Mexico, and the shrine of that name, 
about six miles north of the city, is called the holiest in Mexico. The beauti- 
ful legends have been written and r.ead in almost every language, and need no 
repetition here. The churches and the chapels, the famous spring, the ship's 
foremast and sails incased in stone, the mysterious preservation of the tilma 
of Juan Diego, with the unfading picture of the Virgin of Guadalupe, are of 
interest. Horse-cars from the Plaza Mayor every half hour. 

Chapultepec, the Mexican White House, Presidential summer residence 
and seat of the National Military Academy, is best reached by carriage 
through the Paseo de la Reforma, though the Tacubaya and San Angel 
horse-cars, from the Plaza Mayor, pass the gates at the foot of the hill, from 
whence it is a rather difficult climb to reach the castle. 

Texcoco is beyond the lake of that name, and is the station for the 
beautiful gardens of the Molino de Flores, the country seat of the ancient 
family Cervantes. Trains of the Inter-Oceanic Railroad stop at Texcoco, 
and schedules usually permit the trip to be made going in the morning and 
return in the evening. Carriages are required between Texcoco and Molino 
de Flores, as the distance is two leagues. 

Amecameca is a pretty little city, immediately at the foot of the volca- 
noes of Popocatepetl and Ixtaccihuatl, and is the point of starting for the 
ascent. The Sacro Monte is an attraction of Amecameca. The railway 
station is just at the foot of the hill. The legends of the sacred mountain are 
incentive enough to make its ascent. Trains of the Inter-Oceanic Railroad 
run conveniently to make the excursion in daylight. 

Pachuca is more of a windy city than Chicago, though not so large. It 
is a great mining town, located in the mountains nearly a thousand feet 
higher than the city of Mexico. The city lies in a barranca between two 
high peaks, so that the breezes blowing down the canon pass over the city 



44 



TOURISTS' GUIDE 



continuously. The mines and the picturesque location are the attractions. 
Trains of the Mexican Railroad and Hidalgo Railroad leave the city in the 
morning and return in the evening. 

Toluca, and ride over the mountains thereto, the magnificence of the 
scenery of the plain and city of Mexico and the Toluca Valley, are described 




RUINS OF A TOLTEC TEMPLE. 

elsewhere in this book. Trains of the Mexican National are scheduled so 
the trip may be made in a day, though it is advised to take an afternoon train 
and return by a morning train. This gives a proper sunlight on the scenery 
on both slopes of the Sierras that is not surpassed anywhere in the world. 

La Viga Canal and the floating gardens. "Who has not heard of the 
floating gardens (chinampas) on La Viga Canal, near the city of Mexico, 
reached by horse-cars from the Plaza Mayor, near the cathedral, to Embar- 
cadero, and thence by canoe for a few hours or for a day ? The boats are a 
sort of Mexican edition of a Venetian gondola, broad and flat-bottomed, with 



TO TOLTEC TOWNS. 45 

scats underneath a canopy in bright colors ; the boats are propelled by a pole 
in the hands of a dusky gondolier. The excursion is altogether a novel one 
particularly on Sundays and feast days, and should not be overlooked. 
Unless you are thoroughly Mexican it is best to make a picnic of it and take 
your provender along ; but there will come alongside a longer and narrower 
canoe hewn from the trunk of a single tree. In one end of this quaint craft 
stands a sv arthy Mexican with a single oar long of handle — in the other a 
comely woman and often a pretty girl, who will offer for a tlaco or a cuartilla 
the native sandwich, a tortilla con came or a tortilla con dulce. I offer no 
advice as to this purchase, but the tortillas of La Viga as I found them were 
clean and toothsome. 

Santa Anita, on the canal, is a sort of native Coney Island, and is a 
great resort, bat the charm is in the ride thither, passing under the low-arched 
bridges, the market boats laden with fruits and flowers, which must stop at 
the La Viga gate and pay a duty to the city levied on all imports from the 
country. There are great, long, flat-bottomed passenger packets also pro- 
pelled by poles going to and from the towns across on the other shores of 
Texcoco, Xochimilco and Chalco, crowded with men, women and children 
and dogs starting or returning from a voyage of a day and a night. Any day 
will do for the La Viga voyage ; but Sunday, or better still, on a feast day, 
there will be flowers afloat and ashore, and music, music everywhere, of all 
sorts, from the tinkle of a guitar to blare of a brass band ; gayly dressed men 
and more gayly dressed women, singing and dancing on the boats or under 
the trees of the Paseo de La Viga which runs along the canal. 

The floating gardens, it is said, really were entitled to the name, but now 
are only bits of land with little canals instead of walks through the beds and 
plots. 

On the banks of La Viga once lived El Senor Don Juan Corona, of most 
happy memory, revered for deeds of daring and loved for his charity. He was 
not a soldier or a Sunday-school superintendent ; in life Don Juan was a bull- 
fighter, and much renowned in his day. 

Ask your gondolier to stop at the hacienda of Don Juan Corona. Enter 
beneath a hospitable roof and find a house intensely Mexican, shaded by trees 
and almost hidden by climbing vines and flowers. Every room is a museum 
in itself, filled with relics of every age and time of Mexico's history, curious 
objects collected from all over the country, in dozens and scores. 

The collection of bric-a-brac was Don Juan's hobby ; but another and 



4 6 



TO URIS TS ' G UIDE 



more philanthropic pleasure of his was the care of children of the poor of La 

Viga, and from 

his savings he 

established a 

school for them, 

where they were 

not only taught 

but clothed and 

fed. He was 

known as the 

"father of the 

destitute. " 

The school 

still exists and 

will be shown 

3 in one of the 

g rooms of the 

^ hacienda. 

j As you enter, 

« the bright lit— 

a tie beneficia- 
(-1 

5 nes of Coro- 
na's bounty 
rise in saluta- 
tion. 

The school 
has not the am- 
ple means it had 
in the life of its 
founder, and any 
offering made 
will not only be 
acceptable, but 
is a tribute to 
the memory of 
a good man. 
Tula is one of the oldest Toltec foundations in the country, where there 





TO TOLTEC TOWNS. 47 

are some grand old ruins of that ancient race. The casas grandes, as the 
ruins are called, are intensely interesting to the tourists as well as the student. 
In the plaza at Tula some curious relics of a prehistoric age may be seen. 
Take a morning train on the Mexican Central Railroad and return in the 
evening. 

Tajo de Nochistongo, the great canal that was intended to drain the 
Mexico Valley, and which cost so many men and so much money, and yet 
failed of its purpose, may be seen on the trip to Tula. The Mexican Central 
track runs along the top of the east bank of the canal. 

The Inter-Oceanic Railway is the recently completed line between 
the city of Mexico and Vera Cruz, running around Lake Texcoco on its 
southern shore and skirting the foot hills of the great volcanoes, keeps their 
white caps in view during nearly the entire journey. The road runs through 
a richly cultivated country, though there is plenty of mountain scenery and 
canons wild and picturesque ; and the cities and towns are quaint and novel 
as they are in Mexico. Puebla, one of the prettiest, most interesting and 
healthy cities, and Jalapa, famed for its quaint location and general beauty, 
are both on the main line to Vera Cruz. The Morelos division of the Inter- 
Oceanic runs south from the city of Mexico to Amecameca, Otumba, 
Cuautla and Yautepec, and under construction to Acapulco. The tour of 
this line is very interesting, passing as it does from the high table-lands to the 
tierra caliente down where the sugar cane and coffee grows. The scenery 
of the descent is very grand, the volcanoes are in view all day long, and the 
view from Nepantla, stretching leagues and leagues away, is beyond descrip- 
tion, and is constantly changing as the train rolls from there down to Cuautla. 

The Mexican Railroad is the oldest railroad in Mexico. This line is 
from the city of Mexico to Vera Cruz, passing from one table-land to another, 
through the famous pulque regions of the plain of Apam to Esperanza, where 
there is a sheer descent of more than two thousand feet in thirteen miles- 
The ride down the mountain from Boca del Monte to Maltrata, through the 
Barranca del Infernillo (the Ravine of the Little Hell), is the chief attraction 
of the trip, though the scenery thence down to Cordoba is very beautiful. 
Orizaba and Cordoba are very pretty cities, and well worthy of a stop-over. 
There are branch lines to Puebla and Jalapa, the former from Apizaco and 
the latter from Tejeria. On this road and others in this region it is very 
dusty at all times, and dusters should be provided before making the 
ourney. 



48 TOURISTS' GUIDE 



The Mexican Southern Railway is in operation from Puebla to 
Tehuacan and Oaxaca, and under construction to Tehuantepec. Track-lay- 
ing is being rapidly extended, and the country opening up to tourist travel 
seems to surpass all anticipations in the way. of scenic attraction. The pas- 
senger equipment of the road is of English manufacture, and surpasses any- 
thing ever sent out from that country. It is simply superb in appointment 
and decoration. A ride over the Southern from Puebla to the track end is 
one of the tourist things to do. 

The Mexican Central Railroad runs a day train north from the 
city of Mexico as far as Leon, passing in daylight some of the most interest- 
ing cities and splendid scenery on that line. Leaving the fine station of 
Buena Vista, the route is across the plain to the northward ; the gradual climb 
enlarges the view, till, at Huehuetoca, the grand panorama of the plain of 
Mexico, with its cities and lakes and the surrounding mountains, spreads out 
in one magnificent picture. This is hardly shut out by an intervening hill, 
higher than the rest, till there is something else of equal interest — the great 
Tajo de Nochistongo, the drainage canal mentioned on another page — then 
the city of Tula, with its ruined city of the Toltecs. 

There is a down grade now to the Cazadero plain, and thence to Quere- 
taro, a very interesting city, noted in Mexico's modern history as the place of 
execution of Maximilian and his generals, Miramon and Mejia; noted among 
tourists as a place of opals. If there be anything in the reputation of that 
jewel, surely there can be no good fortune in store for Queretaro. But the 
prosperity of the place tells a different story, which a look from the window 
as the train approaches the city will prove. The great stone aqueduct that 
brings water from the mountains to the city and the great Hercules cotton 
mills, is one of the great works of the country. The train passes under one 
of the highest arches and through the village of the mills, where there are 
trees and gardens of the tropical fruit and verdure. Just west of the city, in 
a stony field on the hillside, to be seen from the cars, is the spot where the 
last Mexican emperor was executed. 

It is through a fine agricultural country that the line runs now, down 
into the valley of the Laja, and crosses the Mexican National Railroad at 
Celaya ; the beautiful towers of the Franciscan group of churches and of 
Our Lady of Carmen can be seen from the west windows for some miles up 
and down the line. Celaya is noted for its dukes, a kind of native confection 
that is very palatable. The duke dealer meets all trains. 



TO TO L TEC TOWNS. 



49 



Irapuato is celebrated for its all-the year-round strawberries ; these are also 
at the train, 
whether it is 
on time or not, 
as the opals 
are at Quere- 
taro and the ■ 
dukes at Ce- 
laya. I have 
heard some 
one carp at the 
civilization of 
the peon of 
Mexico, but he 
knows which 
strawberries to 
put on the top 
of the basket. 
Irapuato is the 
junction point 
of the Guada- 
lajara division 
with the main 
line. The road 
is a fine one 
through a rich 
country, pictu- 
resque to a de- 
gree, passing 
many fine ha- 
ciendas and the 
cities of Penja- 
mo, La Piedad 
and La Barca, 
running along 
the river Ler- 
ma and near to 




So TOURISTS' GUIDE 

beautiful Lake Chapala, comes to Guadalajara, a truly beautiful city, with its 
fourteen portales, twenty plazas, fourteen bridges, five theatres, twenty-five 
baths, twenty-three restaurants and twenty-eight hotels — a city that was a city 
two hundred years before it had a railroad. There are numberless attrac- 
tions that there is not space here to mention, with interesting excursions to 
Lake Chapala, the Falls of Juanacatlan, Mexico's Niagara, and a canon 2,000 
feet deep, all to make the visit to Guadalajara a lengthy and a pleasant one. 

Northward from Irapuato, on the main line, Silao is the next station of 
importance, a pretty little town and the junction of the branch line to the 
great mining city of Guanajuato, ten miles east — a city set among the 
mountains, a fortified place on the heights, the foundations of whose build- 
ings cost more to dig out than the houses that rest on them. The train stops 
at Marfil ; thence the ride to Guanajuato is four miles up the barranca by 
horse-cars through the quaintest, crookedest road that ever was, and stops at 
the prettiest little plaza, that seems only a shelf in the side of the mountain, 
and on either side the hanging gardens droop their flowers to the waters of a 
rushing stream below. There is but one Guanajuato in Mexico, and no 
other city like it. 

• The route of the Central's day train ends at Leon, a great manufacturing 
city, whose nearly every house is a factory, principally of leathern goods. 
The city is a pretty one, the streets laid out at right angles, with parks and 
plazas here and there, a pretty alameda and a causeway leading to a place of 
suburban resort, which is also the Paseo of Leon. 

The Monterey & Mexican Gulf Railway runs southward from 
Monterey to Tampico, a city now attracting special attention owing to the 
important position it has taken as a seaport. It is situated on the eastern 
coast of Mexico, at the mouth of the Panuco River, surrounded by forests 
and gardens of tropical plants and fruits. The Monterey & Mexican Gulf 
Railway has on sale side-trip tickets at special low rates. Apply to their 
agent at Monterey for full information. Victoria is another city located on 
the line of the Monterey & Mexican Gulf Railway which is well worth a 
visit. It is noted for its handsome promenade, lined on either side with 
stately trees, casting their shadows over the entire promenade and driveway. 

Exchange of Money. 

Passengers having American money can have same exchanged for Mexican 
currency, to the amount of fifty dollars, at the Mexican National R. R. Ticket 



TO TO L TEC TOWNS. 



5* 



Office in New 
" greenbacks " 
or gold, Amer- 
ican silver not 
commanding a 
premium. July 
1, 1890, a law 
went into effect 
establishing 
the dollars and 
cents system, 
but it is well 
to understand 
the old way of 
counting mo- 
ney. 

On arrival 
at Laredo, or 
just before the 
train reaches 
that city, an 
agent of the 
Mexican Na- 
tional R. R. 
comes on 
board the train. 
He wears a 
uniform and 
has a cap 
which bears \ 
the legend 
"Passengers' 
Assistant." 
This gentle- 
man will assist 
passengers in 
every way as 



Laredo, where the highest market price will be paid for 




52 



TOURISTS' GUIDE 







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TO TOLTEC TOWNS. 



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54 TOURISTS' GUIDE 



to tickets, baggage and custom-house regulations. He is a regular agent of 
the Company and is at the service of its patrons. 

The paper money of Mexico, issued by the Banco Nacional and the Bank 
of London, Mexico and South America, passes at par, as do the notes of the 
State banks in the States where issued, but when far away from home are 
discounted somewhat. The gold coins are seldom seen ; the onza is worth 
about $16, media onza $8, the pistola %\ t escudo %i, escudilo $i. 

Silver and Copper. 

The silver currency consists of dollars (pesos), 50c, 25c, \i%o.. (reals), 
6^c. (medios), 10c. and 5c. pieces, cuartillos 3>£c. and ic. coins. The use 
of reals, medios, cuartillos and tlacos is prohibited, but a knowledge of their 
values is essential. 

Prices for Carriages. 

Yellow Flag, % hour or less, 25c; 1 hour, 50c. Red Flag, yi hour or less, 
37c; 1 hour, 75c. Blue Flag, % hour or less, 50c; 1 hour, $1. Green, special 
rates. Sundays and feast days extra rates are charged. Tin (lags indicating 
class are displayed on front corner of roof of coach w T hen not engaged. 

Street-car fares vary according to the distance traveled, from 5 to 25 cents. 
First-class cars are painted yellow, second-class are green. 

Baggage Accommodation. 

After baggage is examined at New Laredo, passengers can on application 
have baggage wire-sealed and avoid other custom houses en route to the 
city of Mexico. 

Expressing Baggage in City of Mexico. 

Transfer agent will board the train before arrival at city of Mexico, and 
will check and deliver baggage to hotels and residences as in the cities of the 
United States. 

Baggage may be also checked from hotels or residences in city of Mexico 
to points on the line of Mexican National R. R., or to Laredo, Texas, upon 
application to C. P. Barrett, City Ticket Agent Mexican National R. R., 



56 TOURISTS' GUIDE 

Coliseo street, under San Carlos Hotel ; or to J. H. Christen, proprietor 
International Transfer Co., No. 402 Calle Gante, near San Francisco street. 

Tourists having curiosities and other small packages can send same safely 
to their homes through the National Railroad Express office, Ortega street, 
No. 28. 

Places of Interest. 

National Palace — Present building commenced in 1692; additions 
have been made since. It occupies the entire eastern side of the Plaza 
Mayor, with a frontage of 675 feet, contains departments of the Federal 
Government, Hall of the Ambassadors, with portraits of Hidalgo, Iturbide, 
Morelos and other persons of note. 

Cathedral — Built upon the site of the great Aztec Temple which the 
Spaniards destroyed when the city was conquered in 1 521. The first stone of 
the existing building was laid in 1573. Final dedication, 1667. Completion 
of the towers, 1791. Entire cost about $2,000,000. The building measures 
387 feet from north to south, and 177 feet from east to west. Interior height, 
179 feet. It is built of stone. Towers are 203 feet 6 inches high. 

Flower Market — Glass and iron pavilion in garden west of Cathedral ; 
best display in early morning. 

Mint — Calle del Apartado ; open from 8 A. M. to 5 P. M. 

National Museum — Open daily, Saturdays excepted, from 10 a. m. to 
1 2 noon. Aztec Calendar Stone, Sacrificial Stone, Maximilian's Chariot, 
Montezuma's Shield, etc. 

Academy of Fine Arts, or San Carlos Academy — Open daily, 
12 M. to 3 P. M. Paintings by native and foreign artists. 

Paseo de la Reforma — Two and one-fifth miles long; laid out by 
Maximilian; runs from bronze statute of Charles IV. to gates of Chapul- 
tepec. The Paseo is the daily early morning and late afternoon ride and 
drive of fashionable Mexico. 

Chapultepec — The Presidential residence and National Military 
Academy. 

Guadalupe— Holiest shrine in Mexico, old church, stone sails, ceme- 
tery, Santa Ana's tomb, Grotto Cave, and beautiful view of the city and 
valley of Mexico. 



TO TOLTEC TOWNS, 57 

La Viga Canal — Take La Viga cars to La Viga gate ; thence by canoe 
to the Chinampas or floating gardens. 

Hacienda of Don Juan Corona— In this house, on the bank of the 
Viga Canal, can be seen a valuable and rare collection of ancient and modern 
Mexican curiosities. Don Juan was a retired bull-fighter become philanthro- 
pist and antiquarian. The hacienda is one of the most interesting places to 
visit. 

Take street-car from main plaza on street leading to the northeast, ride to 
La Viga gate, thence by boat, or all the way on the cars. 

Noche Triste Tree — Beneath which Cortez is said to have wept on the 
night of his disastrous retreat from Mexico, July 1, 1520. 

National Library — Open from 10 a. m. to 5 p. m. daily. 

Churches — Profesa, Santa Teresa, San Fernando and St. Domingo. 
Protestant — Christ Church (Episcopal) ; service at 11 A, M.- on Sundays. 
Trinity Church (Methodist) stands next door; service at 10:15 a. M. The 
" Union Evangelical" has service at 11 A. M. 

In the San Fernando Churchyard is located the tomb of Juarez 
and that of Generals Miramon and Mejia. 

Monte de Piedad — National pawnbroking establishment. Fine gems, 
jewelry, etc. 

Alameda — Band plays every Sunday and Thursday forenoon, from 10 
to 1 o'clock. 

Theatres, Etc. 

Circo-Teatro Orrin— Plazuela Villamil. Capacity, 4,000. 

National Theatre — Vergara street; seating capacity, 3,500. 

Principal Theatre — Coliseo street ; seating capacity, 2,800. 

Arbeu Theatre — San Felipe Neri street ; seating capacity, 700 to 1,000. 

Hidalgo — Cochero street; seating capacity, 700 to 1,000. 

American Hospital — The American Hospital has three large and 
well-arranged buildings. It is pleasantly situated a short distance outside 
the city gates on the Tacuba road. 

The nucleus of the fund from which the hospital was built was con- 
tributed by a party of American tourists, one of their number being taken 



58 TOURISTS' GUIDE 

sick en route. Since then, American residents of the city have raised from 
various sources moneys for the building of the hospital. 

The hospital was opened in 1887, and since that time the American 
colony has supported it, aided at times with subscriptions of visitors. The 
expenses of sustaining the hospital are almost entirely dependent on volun- 
tary contributions. 

Simon Lara, Esq., a retired Spanish-American merchant, has given at 
different times a total of nearly $25,000. 

Hospital de Jesus, in Jesus street, was founded by Cortez before the 
year 1 594, and endowed by him ; contains the only authentic portrait of Cortez 
and his letters patent of nobility and land grants from the King of Spain. 

The Penon Baths- -In the valley of Mexico two and one half (2%) 
miles from the city of Mexico, are situated the celebrated Penon Baths, 
which have become noted for their curative properties. 

The present building is two stories high and comprises all the modern 
conveniences. On the ground floor are situated the bath rooms, dining room 
and billiard parlor, and on the second floor the parlors and dwelling rooms. 

The front of the building is ornamented by a handsome balcony, from 
which a splendid view may be had of the city of Mexico, the village of Gua- 
dalupe to the right, and the base of the chain of mountains, surrounding the 
valley of Mexico, to the left. 

At the rear of the building is another balcony, from which may be seen 
the eastern part of the valley, and the Grand Causeway lined with trees, and 
Lake Texcoco with its peaceful waters shimmering beyond. 

Boating, bowling and other healthful games may be indulged in by the 
visitors. 

These baths are not only recommended to the invalid in search of health, 
but to tourists making a visit to this most interesting of countries. 

For a pamphlet giving full details pertaining to the medicinal properties of 
the waters, address El Sr. Director de los Banos del Penon, city of Mexico. 

Mexican Curiosities to be Purchased as Souvenirs for 
Friends at Home. 

Indian Feather Work — Guest and menu cards, portrait frames, 
panels, dining-room pictures, landscapes, native figures, Mexican coat of 



TO TO L TEC TOWNS. 



59 



arms, Virgin of Guadalupe, etc. Only the most skillful workers are employed, 
and their work is highly artistic and durable. Prices from 10 cents upward. 

Indian Grass Pictures— Most effective views of the Cathedral, Cha- 
pultepec, the Paseo, Valley of Mexico, buildings and statues and railroad 
views, made of colored grasses. The perspective is perfect, and the coloring 
most artistic. . 

Indian Wax, Clay and Rag Figures— Representing with lifelike 
accuracy all the types of the country, bull-fights, comic groups, Mexican sad- 
dles, etc. Prices from 75 cents upward, each. 

Indian baskets, zerapes (hand-woven blankets), grass hammocks and hats, 
opals, copies of Calendar and Sacrificial stones, guitars of armadillo shell. 

Mexican Onyx— Inkstands, rules, penholders, paper knives, paper 
weights representing the fruits of the country, cubes, pyramids, etc., blotters, 
shirt-studs and sleeve-buttons, holy water fonts, table-tops, etc. Prices from 
25 cents upward. 

Indian Lacquer and Inlaid Wood Work— Plaques, gourds, table- 
tops, fruits, work-boxes, handkerchief boxes of " linaloe," a beautiful scented 
wood, coffee-wood sticks with any monogram, small models of guitars inlaid 
with mother-of-pearl, etc. Prices from 1 5 cents upward. 

Indian Horn Work — Card-trays, bowls, cups and saucers, spoons, forks, 
ash-trays, etc. Prices from 25 cents upward. 

Indian Pottery — Water bottles, cups, pitchers and vases of the cele- 
brated Guadalajara ware, curious black vases, pitchers, etc., with figures in 
relief in the old Aztec style. Prices from 25 cents upward. 

Tortoiseshell Work — Combs, paper-cutters, hairpins, sleeve-buttons, 
walking-sticks, etc. 

Antiquities— Old mother-of-pearl fans inlaid with gold, Spanish lace 
mantillas, silk rebozos (hand-woven scarfs), church embroideries, rosaries and 
silver articles. 



6o 



TOURISTS' GUIDE, 



COMPARATIVE DISTANCES. 



New Orleans to City of Mexico via El Paso 

New Orleans to City of Mexico via Eagle Pass. 
New Orleans to City of Mexico via Laredo 



.2,388 miles. 
.1,836 miles. 
.1,570 miles- 



New York to City of Mexico via El Paso 
New York to City of Mexico via Eagle Pass. 
New York to City of Mexico via Laredo 



.3,649 miles. 
.3,210 miles. 
.2,844 miles. 



Chicago to City of Mexico via El Paso 

Chicago to City of Mexico via Eagle Pass. 
Chicago to City of Mexico via Laredo 



.2, £66 miles. 
.2,471 miles. 
.2,155 miles. 



St. Louis to City of Mexico via El Paso 

St. Louis to City of Mexico via Eagle Pass. 
St. Louis to City of Mexico via Laredo 



.2,584 miles. 
.2,189 miles. 
.1,823 miles. 



Kansas City to City of Mexico via El Paso. . . 
Kansas City to City of Mexico via Eagle Pass . 
Kansas City to City of Mexico via Laredo 



.2,398 miles. 
2,080 miles. 



Showing the Laredo Route 266 miles shorter than the Eagle Pass Route, and from 675 to 800 
miles shorter than the El Paso Route to the City of Mexico. Only two changes of Sleeping Cars 
Boston and New York to City of Mexico. 



Distances from Rio Grande Frontier and Altitudes of Principal 
Points on the Line of the Mexican National Railroad. 



Villaldama 

Topo Chico Hot Springs. 

Monterey 

Saltillo 

Vanegas 

Catorce 

San Luis Potosi , 

Dolores Hidalgo 

San Miguel de Allendc. . . 

Celaya 

Salvatierra 

Acambaro 

Morelia 

Patzcuaro 

Maravatio , 

Toluca 

La Cima 

City of Mexico 



Distance 
in Miles. 



112 
167 

170 
2 37 
356 
37i 
479 
565 
587 
621 
644 
664 
721 

759 
702 

795 
817 
840 



Altitude 
in Feet. 



1.576 
1,700 
1,700 
5,000 
5,5oo 
6,000 
6,000 
6,000 
6,000 
5.700 
5.700 
6, 200 
6,750 
6,987 
6,700 
8,700 
10,635 
7.300 



INDEX. 



Acambaro, 

Altitude of Peaks, 

Amusements, 

Baggage, 

Boeas, 

Buena Vista, . 

Carriages, 

Catorce, 

Celaya, 

Colonia Sfation, 

City of Mexico, . 

Curiosities, 

Distances, 

Dolores Hidalgo, 

Exchange of Money, 

Excursion Tickets, 

Express, . 

Guadalupe, 

Hacks, 

Historical, 

Hotels and Restaurants, 

Jajalpa, 

Juan Medina, Leap of, . 

La Cima, 
1 Laja Valley, 

Lake Patzcuaro, 

Lake Cuitseo, 

La Mesa, 

Lerma River, 

Maravatio, 

Monterey, 

Money, 

Morelia, 

Ocoyocac, 

Other Towns and Tours, 

Passengers' Assistant, 

Patzcuaro, . 

Places of Interest, Cty of Mexico 

Querendaro, 

Saltillo, 

Salvatierra, 

San Felipe, 

San Juan de Las Vegas, 

San Luis Potosi, 

San Miguel de Allende, . 

Sierra Madres, 

Souvenirs, . 

Toluca, 

Topo Chico Hot Springs, 

Tropic of Cancer, 

Tzintzuntzan, 

Valley of Mexico, 

Vanegas, . 

Western Division Mexican National R 

Zopilote Canon, . 



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The Mexican National R. R. 

OFFERS TO TRAVELERS THE ADVANTAGE OF THE 

^portest, Quickest and llfeost I icturesque l\ou"h 

AND A RIDE BY DAYLIGHT OVER THE GRAND MOUNTAINS 
AND ACROSS THE BEAUTIFUL 

VALLEYS OK MEXICO. 



"Ticket ^ Telegraph Office 

CITY OF MEXICO, 

COLISEO STREET, UNDER SAN CARLOS HOTEL. 



Through Railroad Tickets to all parts of the United States, and Pull- 
man Car Tickets. 

Telegraph Messages received and forwarded from Mexican and United 
States points. 

Tourists visiting the City of Mexico are cordially invited to make the 
City Ticket Office {under San Carlos Hotel) their headquarters. Any 
assistance will be rendered them by the Agent in making their stay 
pleasant and posting them in regard to points of interest. 

For information, maps, rates, etc., wrhe or apply to 

G. F. WILCOXSON, Gen. East. Agent, 353 Broadway, New York: 

W. E. THURBER, Gen. West. Agent, - 10 Rookery Building, Chicago, III. 

REAU CAMPBELL, Gen. Trav. Agent, 353 Broadway, New York 

J. B. PITHER, Commercial Agent, - Room 408, Houser Building, St. Louis 

\V. B. RYAN, Commercial Agent, - .-._-. Laredo, Texas 

G. T. BADEAU, Commercial Agent, - - - - 45 St. Charles St., New Orleans 

C. P. BARRETT, Ticket Agent, San Carlos Hotel, City of Mexico 

Or any coupon ticket agent in the United States or Canada. 

B. W. THACHER, Gen. Pass. Agent, CITY OF MEXICO. 



r^ 




